


Survivors

by Minimal_fandom



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Marooned, Shipwreck, Survival, Team, Team as Family, Whump, alpha force au, there's pirates and sharks and komodo dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6305365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minimal_fandom/pseuds/Minimal_fandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five kids: Skye, Hunter, Bobbi, Fitz & Simmons bond on board a sailing ship. When they are marooned on a desert island, they must face the ultimate test - survival! Killer komodo dragons, sharks and modern day pirates are amongst the dangers they face. The team is born.</p>
<p>An AOS version of Alpha Force by Chris Ryan - with plot divergence of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There's always a fuse

SOMEWHERE IN THE INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO …

It only takes an instant to die…

As she struggled away from the huge wave that towered over her, Skye began to hear Phil’s voice in her head, as he recounted some long ago time in the special forces. It was oddly comforting to listen to that calm, quiet voice and Skye found the strength to push herself on through the turbulent water, even though his muscles were almost useless with exhaustion. 

It only takes an instant to die, continued her adoptive father’s voice. The way to survive is to make sure you never reach that instant. Are you listening, Skye? You need to understand how an accident happens. Most people think it explodes without warning – BLAM! Like a firework. But you look more closely at the accident and what do you see...?

“A fuse…” croaked Skye, forcing herself to take a few more strokes before floundering to a stop. “There’s always a fuse…” 

She blinked the stinging seawater from her eyes and looked over her shoulder to see whether she was clear of the breaking wave. She groaned. All that effort and she had hardly moved. It was as though she had been treading water. The wave still towered over her, even higher now. It was a solid slab of black water, except at the top here there was a frayed edge of white foam. The wave had reached its crest and was beginning to curl over. In a few seconds, the whole weight of the water would crash down on top of him.

Skye stopped swimming. She knew she was fighting a losing battle. Instead, she concentrated on her breathing, topping up her system with as much oxygen as she could before the wave hit. She felt herself being tugged backwards as the surrounding water was sucked into the base of the breaking wave. Forcing her burning lungs to take in one more deep breath, she turned and dived down under the surface a second before the breaker crashed down on top of her. 

Even under the water, Skye was overwhelmed by the impact. The breaker slammed her down and knocked all the air out of her with a casual efficiency that reminded her of Phil kneading dough. As she tumbled lazily through the water, drifting on the edge of consciousness, Skye thought about Phil making bread half a world away in a kitchen she had been so keen to leave. She thought of how sad he would be if she didn’t return from her trip and suddenly she was fully awake again. 

She began to struggle against the current, which was still rolling her over and over, pulling her nearer and nearer to the reef where the boat had broken in two. If she was dragged across the razor-sharp coral, her skin would be torn to ribbons. How close was she? There was a roaring in her ears which could be breaking surf. Skye forced her eyes open, but it was so dark under the water, she could not tell which way was up. She redoubled her efforts to swim against the current until she felt as though her chest was about to burst open. Her movements became weaker, the roaring in her ears grew louder and sparks of multi-coloured light began to dance behind her eyes, but she kept going and, suddenly, the current let her go. She broke surface and pulled whooping breaths of air into her lungs. 

Clearing her eyes, she peered about her. The moon was up and, in its pale light, she could just see the dark, jagged outline of the island she was trying to reach. She turned in the water and saw white surf breaking on the reef behind her. It was still too close for comfort and another huge wave was beginning to build. Gritting her teeth, Skye started to swim again, scanning the water for any sign of the rest of A-Watch. 

She spotted Bobbi first, way ahead of her. She had nearly reached the island and was swimming strongly. Behind Bobbi, but still in the quieter waters of the lagoon, two more heads bobbed close together in the water. Fitz and Simmons, thought Skye, guessing that Fitz wouldn’t leave Simmons’ side if he could help it. But where was Hunter? Skye felt a chill run through her as she remembered that Hunter, the fifth member of A-Watch, had been ever nearer to the reef before the wave hit. 

Despite the next breaker building behind her, Skye slowed and turned to scan the surface for Hunter. She half expected to see a body, floating face down in a spreading circle of blood, but there was nothing. Then she caught a movement over to her left. There was Hunter, ahead of her now, and swimming steadily towards the island. He must have managed to surf in on the back of the wave that had swallowed Skye. 

Satisfied, Skye put the others out of her mid and concentrated on swimming as hard as she could. This time she was nearly clear of the breaker when it crashed. Once more, she dived to survive the impact, then swam against the current that was pulling her backwards. She felt a surge of elation as she broke the surface again. She was going to make it! Then something slammed into the back of her head with bone-shattering force. Instinctively, she flung her left arm up to protect her head and was caught in a grip which instantly tightened, biting into the flesh of her wrist. As she began to spiral down into the water, trailing blood, Skye heard Phil’s voice again.

Every accident has a fuse, Skye. There’s always a fuse. 

Skye watched with a sort of dazed curiosity as a thin rope of her own blood twisted away from her towards the surface. That must be the fuse, she thought. In the few seconds left to her before she lost consciousness, Skye imagined the fuse stretching across the sea and back in time to twenty-four hours earlier, when they had all still been aboard the SHIELD. That was when it had all started. That final Watch Duty, when the fuse was lit…


	2. Spark

Skye knelt on the fore-deck of the SHIELD as she cut a graceful path through the clear, blue water. The SHIELD was a beautiful ship; a newly-built replica of a three-masted schooner with white sails that curved like wings in the breeze. She was a week into her maiden voyage, sailing east across the Java Sea. To the south, the island of Java made a jagged scribble on the horizon and all around them clusters of smaller Indonesian islands dotted the water. The late-afternoon sun touched everything with a soft, golden glow.  
Skye had no time to gaze at the view. She was concentrating on polishing the brass fittings of the deck rail to a high shine. Her back ached and her chest and arms were beaded with sweat in the humid head of the day, but, for the first time since the voyage began, she was happy. A-Watch were nearly at the end of their latest Watch Duty and, for once, nothing had gone wrong. 

Victoria, their Watch leader, had been determined to have a good Watch. She had set them their tasks and then spent the whole four hours circling the deck, watching them coldly like a small, blue-eyed shark. 

Skye glanced at the other four members of A-Watch. Bobbi and Hunter were both hunched over a big, metal cookpot, preparing vegetables. They were working in a sullen silence and trading hostile looks, but at least they weren’t fighting. Jemma was up in the rigging, clambering and balancing high above the deck with the confidence of an expert climber. 

Fitz was swabbing the deck. He had started off well, but now she was absent-mindedly pushing his mob back and forth over one very clean patch of deck while he gazed up at Jemma, hypnotized. 

“Leo!”

Fitz jumped. Victoria was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. He swallowed, then tried one of his trademark puppy-dog eyes. The smile turned to a look of horror as Victoria stalked across the deck towards him, her eyes like chips of ice. Grabbing the mop, Fitz moved off, swabbing at high speed and sending water flying everywhere. Skye grinned as she turned back to her polishing. Victoria was tall, and terrifying. She was in her mid-twenties, she guessed which made her barely ten years older than the five members of her Watch, but she had started work on youth-projects such as this one at sixteen and she was hard as nails. 

Skye gave the brasswork one last swipe and straightened up, rubbing her aching back. She caught the tiniest nod of approval from Victoria and grinned again. This trip might just start working out after all. 

“Not bad,” said Victoria, looking around the deck. “Not good,” she scowled, folding her arms. “But – it’s a start. Now, listen up. B-Watch will be relieving us here any minute, so let’s get this deck ship-shape for them. Fitz and Skye, stow away your cleaning stuff. Bobbi and Hunter carry that cookpot down to the galley. Together! Jemma, enough of the circus acts. Come down and take a bow. I’m off to write up the Watch log.”

Victoria walked away and Skye breathed a sigh of relief. The Watch was over and nothing had gone wrong. She was beginning to think there might be some hope for A-Watch. She was mistaken. 

As soon as Victoria was out of sight, Hunter dropped his side of the cookpot. 

“Hey!” yelled Bobbi, jumping out of the way as water slopped onto the deck.

Skye did her best to ignore them as she took her phone from her pocket and sat down with her back to the mast. Her fingers tapped against her leg as she waited for it to turn on. 

Bobbi’s dark eyes flashed as Hunter did a few pull-ups against top of the door. “Look at you. You’re ridiculous. How is this your life?”

“Well it’s better than standing there looking at you.” 

Skye hooted with laughter. “Way to go Hunter. Straight through the heart. You win the Mr Nasty prize for today.” 

Jemma grinned as she climbed down the last stretch of rope webbing. She paused for an instant, looking down to check the next foothold, and Fitz threw down his mop. 

“Don’t worry, Simmons,” he said, practically throwing himself towards the base of the mast. “I’ve got ya.”

Fitz reached out his hands to her, and Jemma looked at him with a raised eyebrow, carefully considering her next move, then she threw herself backwards off the rigging, flying through the air and landing neatly with both her arms outstretched and her eyes full of mischief. The thud of her feet hitting the deck startled Skye, she looked away from her screen for an instant, and it was enough for her to lose her grip on her phone. Bobbi reached down to pick it up, lurching forwards. Hunter misread the sudden gesture as an attack, and sidestepped the stumbling girl, pushing her away from him and across the wet deck. In an uncontrolled stagger across the deck, Bobbi tripped straight over Fitz’ discarded mop. The wooden handle smacked into her shins, knocking her off her feet and sending her hurtling across the deck. Skye’s phone flew out of Bobbi’s hand, through the air and disappeared over the side. In an instant that seemed to last forever, Jemma saw that Bobbi was either going to follow the phone into the sea, or smash her skull against the deck rail. 

Without stopping to think, Jemma put her head down and launched herself at Bobbi in an attempt to knock her off-course. The impact jarred every bone in her small body and stopped her breath. For one, stunned second, she felt as though she was floating in mid-air, then she landed hard on the deck, knocking the remaining breath from her lungs and grating the skin from her elbow. 

Jemma sucked in air and blinked rapidly to clean her vision. Had she succeeded? She didn’t dare to look behind her. Instead, she looked up at Fitz, Skye and Hunter. All three of them were wearing identical shocked expressions. Jemma closed her eyes, imagining the worst. Then a sudden shift beside her forced her onto her back. 

“Ouch!”

Dizzily, Jemma got to her knees and turned around. A relieved grin spread across her face. Bobbi was standing to the side of her and she looked furious. 

“You think that was funny?” yelled Bobbi. “See what you did?” It took Jemma longer than she was proud of to realise that Bobbi wasn’t yelling at her, instead it was Hunter who was on the receiving end of her wrath. 

“You think you’re such a hard man. All big and tough. But you’re nothing Lance Hunter. Absolutely nothing.” 

Hunter snapped. He started towards Bobbi, his eyes flat and merciless. Bobbi grinned and settled into a fighting stance, her feet apart for balance. Lance was broad-shouldered and muscled, but Bobbi was much taller than him and her reflexes had been sharpened by years of archery, fencing and downhill skiing, she was all balance, avoidance, concentration and speed. Bobbi felt more than ready to meet Hunter head-on but, before the fight could start, a wave of cold water knocked them both sideways. They stopped in their tracks, coughing and sputtering as they tried to clear the water from their eyes. 

Jemma, Fitz and Skye all turned to see where the water had come from. Victoria was standing there, holding a dripping bucket. She seemed to crackle with a furious energy. The freckles stood out darkly on her white face and the muscles jumped in her clenched jaw. She threw the bucket to the deck, where it rolled backwards and forwards with a metallic rumbling in the sudden silence. Victoria let the silence grow until she had their full attention. When she finally spoke, her voice was tight and small, as though she was holding back a roar. 

 

“Clean up this mess, then report to me on the aft-deck in ten minutes,” she snapped then strode away without looking back.

**Author's Note:**

> Still working on some of the characterisation, the plot will diverge from the books further down the line! Let me know what you think.


End file.
